Universe is EXPANDING FASTER than expected – NASA reveals

The new evidence shows the universe is expanding about nine percent faster than was initially projected, casting doubt on the cosmological models which explain what happened after the Big Bang. These latest observations show distant objects in space, including galaxies, moving further away from us at a rate of 74 kilometres per second, significantly faster than than the prediction of 67 kilometres (41.6 miles) per second per megaparsec, which were initially forecast from the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite. Adam Riess, who won the Nobel Prize in physics for proving the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate with Saul Perlmutter and Brian P Schmidt, said: “If we know the initial amounts of stuff in the universe, such as dark energy and dark matter, and we have the physics correct, then you can go from a measurement at the time shortly after the Big Bang and use that understanding to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today.”

However, calculating the rate of the universe’s expansion is not an exact science.

But the latest data from NASA now put “the possibility that the discrepancy is only a fluke to 1 in 100,000”.

The space agency said: “This is a significant gain from an earlier estimate, less than a year ago, of a chance of 1 in 3,000.”

The “mismatch” in data has been highlighted by Mr Reiss who wrote to The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

He said: ”This mismatch has been growing and has now reached a point that is really impossible to dismiss as a fluke. This is not what we expected.

“This is not just two experiments disagreeing. We are measuring something fundamentally different. 

“One is a measurement of how fast the universe is expanding today, as we see it. 

“The other is a prediction based on the physics of the early universe and on measurements of how fast it ought to be expanding. 

“If these values don’t agree, there becomes a very strong likelihood that we’re missing something in the cosmological model that connects the two eras.” 

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. 

The giant telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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